Showing posts with label Matt Di Angelo. Show all posts

Thursday, 30 October 2014

As Kara Tointon and Artem Chigvintsev break up they are part of a long line of Strictly failed romances

As Kara Tointon and Artem Chigvintsev break up, Femail delves into the Strictly couples who lost their spark and those who are still going strong

Kara and Artem started dating after she appeared on show in 2010
The couple are one in a long line of Strictly failed romances
Joe Calzaghe and Kristina Rihanoff split last year after four years together
Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev are still going strong one year on

PUBLISHED: 15:32, 29 October 2014 | UPDATED: 16:24, 29 October 2014

The Strictly Come Dancing show has gone from strength to strength since it first launched in 2004.

But unlike the show's ratings, the romances it has produced over the years have not had much luck.

These days, the programme is almost as famous for the Strictly curse as it is for the spellbinding fox trots and tangos that it produces.

Scroll down for video

Kara and Artem started dating after the 2010 show. They join a long line of Strictly failed romances, including Joe Calzaghe and Kristina Rihanoff and Matt Di Angelo and Flavia Cacace

Artem Chigvintev and Kara Tointon on Strictly in 2010

This week the curse has struck again, with Kara Tointon announcing that she has split from the Artem Chigvintsev - her dance partner on the show in 2010.

Kara and Artem are one of a long list of romantic casualties from BBC programme, which has been responsible for breaking numerous relationships and marriages.

Natasha Kaplinsky and Brendan Cole

The pattern started with Natasha Kaplinsky and her dance partner Brendan Cole in 2004.

The pair have always denied any kind of relationship, but they were dogged with romance rumours both during and after their time on the programme together.

The stories weren't helped when Natasha split with her long-term partner Mike Barnard soon after the show, with Brendan also splitting with his girlfriend Camilla Dallerup.

Natasha Kaplinsky and her dance partner Brendan Cole in 2004

Matt Di Angelo and Flavia Cacace

Matt Di Angelo and Flavia Cacace were partnered in the 2007 and were plagued with rumours of a romance, despite Flavia being in a relationship with fellow dancer Vincent Simone.

But the couple eventually succumbed to their emotions and started dating after Flavia dumped Vincent.

Matt later said: 'It was front page news. The funny thing was the story did not start off as true, but the more you read it, the more you started to believe it and actually act on it.

'I started to think that if I am getting all this stick, we might as well go out with each other.'

The chemistry wasn't strong enough to last though and the pair later split.

Matt Di Angelo and Flavia Cacace started dating after he appeared n the show in 2007

Flavia Cacace and Jimi Mistry:

Shortly after Matt and Flavia split, she started dating her 2010 dance partner Jimi Mistry.

Flavia and Jimi have so far managed to hold off the Strictly curse - last year the couple got married.

They tied the knot at London's St Pancras Renaissance Hotel in December.

Flavia said of Jimi: 'I'm probably the happiest I've ever been.

'We can chat forever to each other and never run out of things to say.'

Flavia Cacace and Jimi Mistry are one of the few success stories - they got married last year

Jimi and Flavia get up-close and personal on Strictly

Ali Bastian and Brian Fortuna:

In 2009, actress Ali Bastian was partnered with American dancer Brian Fortuna and they went on to win third place in that year's competition.

The couple started dating while still on the show and after it finished they went on to perform in a West End show called Burn The Floor together.

Sadly, the romance fizzled out away from the dance floor and they split a year later.

Ali Bastian and Brian Fortuna dated for a year after meeting on the show in 2009

Joe Calzaghe and Kristina Rihanoff:

2009 was also the year that Joe Calzaghe signed up for the dance competition, where he was partnered with Kristina Rihanoff.

Joe dumped his girlfriend Jo-Emma Larvin and started dating Kristina, with the couple moving in together after just a year.

The relationship didn't last though and the couple split last year, with Kristina blaming her busy work schedule.

Joe Calzaghe and Kristina Rihanoff had a good run of it, but the couple eventually split after four years together in 2013

Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe:

2009 was a bumper year for celebrity-dancer relationships on Strictly, as Ricky Whittle also rumoured to have had a romance with his partner Natalie Lowe.

The chemistry was enough for Ricky to take the plunge and dump his two-year girlfriend and fellow Hollyoaks actor Carley Stenson.

Any chemistry between Natalie and Ricky was short-lived though, with Ricky most recently dating Bruce Willis and Demi Moore's daughter Rumer.

Ricky Whittle and Natalie Lowe had huge chemistry when they partnered in the 2009 show

Rachel Riley and Pasha Kovalev:

Last year, Countdown's Rachel Riley was the surprise victim of the Strictly curse after she fell for the charms of her dance partner Pasha Kovalev.

She split with her husband of 15 months and childhood sweetheart Jamie Gilbert just one month after appearing on the show.

Rachel and Pasha then started dating earlier this year and are so far still together.

Rachel Riley left her husband after performing on Strictly last year, in the summer she began dating her dance partner Pasha Kovalev

Monday, 30 December 2013

Jimi Mistry weds former Strictly Come Dancing partner Flavia Cacace

Jimi Mistry weds former Strictly Come Dancing partner Flavia Cacace in stunning London ceremony

By DAILY MAIL REPORTER

PUBLISHED: 11:26, 30 December 2013 | UPDATED: 15:08, 30 December 2013

Jimi Mistry has married Strictly Come Dancing star Flavia Cacace.

The 40-year-old actor tied the knot with the professional dancer - whom he was paired with in the 2010 edition of BBC One ballroom competition - on Sunday at London's St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel.

The 34-year-old beauty shared a photograph from the wedding on Twitter, which she accompanied with the caption: 'Had the most amazing day with family & friends @StPancrasRen xxx (sic).'

Scroll down for video

Oh happy day: Actor Jimi Mistry wed his former Strictly Come Dancing partner Flavia Cacace in London on Sunday

As well as posting the message, Flavia changed her surname on the social networking site from Cacace to Cacace-Mistry.

Eagle-eyed fans will also have noticed that the couple posed on the stairs made famous by the Spice Girls, who filmed their Wannabe video at the Victorian venue back in 1996.

Several stars took to Twitter to congratulate the couple including Flavia's fellow Strictly professional dancer Kristina Rihanoff.

It was fate: Jimi was paired with Flavia in the 2010 edition of Strictly Come Dancing

She wrote: 'Congratulations my darling !!xx.'

Astrologer Russell Grant, who partnered Flavia in the 2011 series of Strictly, also congratulated the pair and admitted the news had reduced him to tears of joy.

He tweeted: '@FlaviaCacace just to let you know I'm in tears of happiness in my dressing room @lighthousepanto (sic).'

Jimi and Flavia get up-close and personal on Strictly

Let's dance: Flavia with her professional partner and ex-fiance Vincent Simone (left) and ex-boyfriend Matt Di Angelo

Former Strictly judge Arlene Phillips wrote: 'Never seen you look more beautiful. Xxxx'

Jimi - who plays ex-squaddie Kal in Coronation Street - popped the question to the brunette beauty last New Year's Eve. but later admitted he hadn't planned to propose.

He said: 'I didn't plan on it being then, but it turned out that way.'

Ex-EastEnders actor Jimi was previously married to Meg Leonard from 2001 to 2010 and the former couple have 12-year-old daughter Elin Leonard-Mistry together.

Flavia previously dated her Strictly partner Matt Di Angelo and professional partner Vincent Simone, who she continues to dance with.

Famous setting: The Spice Girls shot the video for their single Wannabe at the same venue in 1996

Revisiting the scene of the crime: The girls returned to the hotel to launch Viva Forever in 2012

Picturesque: An exterior shot of the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel

Sunday, 27 May 2012

My affair with Flavia wasn't exciting at all! Or so says Matt Di Angelo

My affair with Flavia wasn't exciting at all! Or so says Matt Di Angelo, but is he still smarting after she waltzed off with Jimi Mistry?

By NICOLE LAMPERT

PUBLISHED: 00:44, 25 May 2012 | UPDATED: 08:40, 25 May 2012

Tangoed: Matt Di Angelo, better known as Deano Wicks in the soap Eastenders, with dancer Flavia Cacace

Matt Di Angelo is doing his best to keep a smile on his face. He is easy-going and charming, but his incredible aquamarine eyes are flashing as we stray into the one territory he remains uncomfortable in.

He has been an actor since he was nine. He worked on EastEnders for two years and spent another two on Hustle — but the thing he remains best known for is having a romance with his Strictly Come Dancing co-star Flavia Cacace.

‘It’s depressing that it is so much easier to get noticed by having people gossip about your love life than when you work really hard and do good work,’ he groans.

‘You could put your life into a play for three months and not get a line wrong — and still get ignored in all the reviews. But go and get off with someone and you’ll be on the front pages.’

Yet of all the Strictly romances there have been over the years, it remains one of the most interesting. Flavia was in a long-term relationship with her dance partner Vincent Simone when she was partnered with Matt in 2007. He was eight years her junior.

At first, Vincent was not worried. To him, Matt, then 19, was just a boy. But he is a very pretty, very charming young man, and before long gossip was raging about how Flavia and Matt were secretly in love.

Soon Vincent was moaning very publicly about how Flavia had left him, and shortly after the show finished the pair started dating.

Their romance ended in 2010, and a few weeks later Flavia admitted she was dating her latest dance partner, actor Jimi Mistry. Matt won’t actually mention Flavia’s name, and any discussion is firmly in the abstract.

‘It was a pretty crazy time,’ he says, shaking his head. ‘It was front page news. The funny thing was the story did not start off as true, but the more you read it, the more you started to believe it and actually act on it.

‘The programme-makers were just as involved. Tess [Daly, who presents Strictly with Bruce Forsyth] would make comments and they would give us particular dances. Then I’d be reading stuff from Vincent and other stories about how I was in love, so I started to think that if I am getting all this stick, we might as well go out with each other.

Leggy lady: Actor Matt Di Angelo and his partner Flavia Cacace performing on Strictly Come Dancing

Day job: Matt Di Angelo as Deano Wicks, Kellie Shirley as Carly Wicks and Chelsea Fox as Tiana Benjamin in Eastenders

‘But in reality, there wasn’t much drama. There was never a raised voice, and often the three of us would be sitting down having a cup of tea together. Everything was just fine. To be honest, it was a lot more exciting in the newspapers than it was in real life.’

The pair dated for three years. Flavia has said they split because Matt wanted to work in America.
When I put this to him, he looks slightly bewildered, before adding: ‘Is that what she said? Well, if that’s what she said, I don’t argue with women. My mum taught me that. I just say “Yes love!”’

It is true to say that Matt has been in America, but only for a month at a time. He goes there for pilot season, when the production companies are casting for new shows (which may or may not be made). Most recently, he went with his new girlfriend.

He won’t reveal her name, but says she is not an actress. ‘No, no, I would never go out with an actress,’ he says. ‘There’s only room in the relationship for one ego.

Chemistry: Matt Di Angelo and Flavia Cacace dancing the Waltz on Strictly Come Dancing

‘Acting can be a tough job because you never know what is going to happen next. When you haven’t got any work, you can go through moments thinking: “Have I done something wrong? Have I put too much weight on? Was I speaking too quickly?” If you have two people doing that, I imagine it can get pretty dark.’

Matt, 25, who is half-Cypriot and half-Irish, grew up in Southgate, North London, and attended the Sylvia Young theatre school.

He has had few lean moments in his 16 years in showbusiness, but admits the fame he won on EastEnders can sometimes be a hindrance.

‘I’ve had people say they didn’t want me to read for a part, even though they thought I was right for it, because I was on EastEnders. But I left the show six years ago. It is a different mind-set in LA. There, if you have been on a show that has been running for 25 years with six million viewers, that’s amazing.

‘If you had done four series of any show in America you would be a millionaire and picking your next job. Over here, they are bored of you.’

He is happy just to keep working, and takes his inspiration from his Hustle co-star, the veteran Hollywood actor Robert Vaughn, who at 79 remains an amazing workhorse.

‘Just being around Robert is incredible,’ he says. ‘He is a legend. Yet he is so humble and still doing the same hours as me.

‘Sometimes days on set were long and I’d be knackered, but he is three times my age and still standing. Chocolate was his secret — he always had a stash.’

Matt has recently finished his first lead role in a small British movie, Two Days In The Smoke.
‘It’s Pretty Woman meets Gangster No1,’ he says. The ridiculously small budget film was made in just three weeks, but gives yet another string to Matt’s bow — that of the romantic lead.

‘Acting is a tough game and I feel blessed to have kept working,’ he says. ‘I’m not very good at networking. I would much rather stay at home and watch auction shows, as I love collecting things like old blunderbusses.

‘I don’t enjoy being in magazines, and I hated it when they tried to turn me into a heart-throb. You won’t ever see me posing with my top off because I feel I have some morals.

‘I am not a lump of meat. I just want to act, and to be remembered for my work. That’s all I want.’

Two Days In The Smoke is due for release this autumn.

KATCHING MY I

Pages